The Chicago Bears today released troubled running back Cedric Benson who was arrested twice this offseason.

Benson is the latest in a string of bust running backs drafted by the Bears. Curtis Enis and Rashaan Salaam were both superstar college runners who flamed out and busted in their NFL careers after being high Chicago draft picks.

What’s amazing is in a side-by-side comparison of their statistics, Benson was JUST AS UNPRODUCTIVE as either Enis or Salaam despite being drafted higher (fourth) in the first round.

Look at the career stats. Benson is just as big a failure as either Enis or Salaam:

CEDRIC BENSON

Career Rushing Yards: 1593

Yards Per Carry: 3.8

Career Games/Starts: 35/12

Career Receptions: 26

Career TD’s: 10

CURTIS ENIS

Career Rushing Yards: 1497

Yards Per Carry: 3.3

Career Games/Starts: 36/18

Career Receptions: 59

Career TD’s: 6

RASHAAN SALAAM

Career Yards: 1684

Yards Per Carry: 3.6

Career Games/Starts: 33/21

Career Receptions: 16

Career TD’s: 14

Conclusion: Cedric Benson actually ran for fewer career yards with the Bears than Rashaan Salaam (who was on an SI list of top 25 draft busts EVER.) He also started barely half as many games.

Benson also played in less games and had half as many career receptions as Curtis Enis.

Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson was arrested early Saturday morning and charged with driving while intoxicated. It’s Benson’s second arrest in the last month. Earlier this offseason he was arrested for boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest.

Somebody got the genius idea recently to interview former Chicago Bears running back Rashaan Salaam about current Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson and his so-far wasted career.

After all, Salaam was one of the players on a list by ESPN.com featuring “The Worst Draft Picks in 25 Years” and you could probably make the argument that so far Benson has been a bigger failure than Salaam.

Salaam mentioned his well-known use of marijuana. He claims “everybody” in the league smokes pot and denied it contributed to his failed NFL career. Fine. Except www.profootballtalk.com dug up an interview from 2003 where Salaam clearly thought differently. At the time Salaam said,

“It really took the life out of me. It took away my love for football. My love turned toward the weed. That’s not the person I really am, you know what I’m saying. I want to play football, not smoke weed all my life. My life got away from me.”

The website Busted Coverage may have found a previously undiscovered picture of Chicago Bears quarterback Kyle Orton drunk. In the infancy of sports blogs, Orton was one of the first professional athletes busted partying by online “journalists.”

You would think Orton would know better than to get caught partying in public again, but these pictures may have been from as far back as 2005.

For several years the Downtown Athletic Club has given out the “Butkus Award” in honor of the nation’s top college linebacker. Now, former Chicago Bears linebacker, Dick Butkus, has won a lawsuit preventing college football from using his name for the award.

In fact, a federal court in California ruled the Downtown Athletic Club may actually owe Butkus damages.